Hi-- my name is Trish and I live in CT. I have 4 children, and the youngest is special needs. He's spent about 6 months in the PICU shortly after he was born, had 4 open heart surgeries, was fed through a tube for 4 years, and came too close to death so many times, I lost count.

Yet here he is, in the picture, almost 10. I never thought I'd see double digits.

I've learned so much from him, mostly that only life and love matter. Everything else is small stuff-- ...

Hi-- my name is Trish and I live in CT. I have 4 children, and the youngest is special needs. He's spent about 6 months in the PICU shortly after he was born, had 4 open heart surgeries, was fed through a tube for 4 years, and came too close to death so many times, I lost count.

Yet here he is, in the picture, almost 10. I never thought I'd see double digits.

I've learned so much from him, mostly that only life and love matter. Everything else is small stuff-- money, disagreements, food-- it's all minor. Every day I get to wake up and still call myself a mother to 4 kids, well, everything else that happens that day pales in comparison.

I had lost 80 lbs through WW after he was born, and kept it off for 3 glorious years. Don't ask me how, with the stress I was under with medical appointments, therapies, school woes, and multiple minor surgeries for him. Anyway, he went back into the hospital in 2006 for his last heart surgery and spent another 6 weeks fighting to stay alive. I surrendered to the food god after about a week of no sleep and stress off the charts. And I gained back 60 of the 80 lbs I had lost.

So I'm trying again. He's stable, in a great school and doing very well physically. So now it's my time again. This is a journey, not something that needs to be done in a hurry, and in the meantime, I'll just focus on making healthy choices. I have a lot to live a long time for.

I want to lose at least 20lbs by June 4th when I'll run my 4th half marathon. Due to an injury, I think another whole marathon is out of the picture. But I'm excited to beginning this journey again, and hope (and pray) the enthusiasm lasts. If I don't lose it by the 20th, anything I lose is a gain!

I think you make a good point--that it's harder to eat fewer meals with more time in between when you're an endurance athlete. I don't even think that would be healthy. I only workout minimally, so skipping meals, not snacking, and increasing the hours between meals is not terribly difficult (except when the sugar cravings hit, which is why I'm blogging about that)!

Tell your son I said CONGRATULATIONS!!! My husband has been a para working with speacial needs middle school age children for 6 years. He loves it, when I showed him your reason for celebrating, he even said good for him! Have a good day!